More police, staff deployed at reopened Paranur toll plaza

On early hours of Sunday, the toll plaza was reopened in the presence of the police personnel, and more workers were deployed to ensure smooth movement of the vehicles, said an NHAI official. All the 12 toll lanes have been opened for traffic. The NHAI official said that they have given strict instruction to the workers at the toll plaza to respond politely to the drivers even if they behaved aggressively. “More workers were also deployed to ensure free movement of vehicles,” the official added.

With the facility remaining closed for over four weeks, the vehicles were going past the toll plaza without paying user fee. The toll plaza witnessed usual traffic on Sunday, with vehicles queuing to pay the user fee.

Many motorists felt that the permanent closure of the toll plaza would help reduce traffic congestion and free movement of the vehicles. “When the toll plaza remained shut, vehicles were moving freely without any traffic. With the opening of the plaza, the movement of the vehicles were slowed down. The NHAI should do away with this toll plaza altogether,” saidS Aravindan, a driver of a private company bus.

The toll plaza was vandalised after an altercation broke out between the workers and the crew of a government bus on January 26. The delay caused by the altercation led to the plaza being vandalised by the passengers, the public and crew of other buses. In the melee, six toll collection booths, computers, boom barriers, furniture, CCTV cameras and electronic toll collection scanners and systems were broken by the mob. Due to the closure of the toll plaza for over four weeks, the NHAI had lost about Rs 8 crore of toll collection.